KNOXVILLE — UT, Knoxville, is adding a dynamic new sculpture to its campus thanks to a private gift from alumnus Wilton D. “Chick” Hill. The sculpture, designed by New York-based artist Alice Aycock, is being installed on the Johnson-Ward Pedestrian Mall throughout this week. The five-year process was facilitated by the School of Art.

Assistant Chief Debbie Perry has been named the interim chief of the UT Police Department. Perry replaces former Chief August Washington, who has been named the new chief of police and assistant vice chancellor for Vanderbilt University, and will serve his last day at UT on July 24.

The UT Knoxville College of Education, Health and Human Sciences has established the Graduate School of Education. It is the only graduate school of education in the Southeast. By creating this school, the college aims to further distinguish its teacher-training program on the national level.

Thirty high school students will arrive at UT Knoxville on Saturday for a weeklong program that will allow them to explore the world of business and possible business careers. This is the second year for “Business Education for Talented Students” (BETS), a program that targets students from communities that are underrepresented in individuals pursuing business careers. There is no cost to participate.

Public radio listeners now have even more reasons to listen to WUOT, licensed to the University of Tennessee, thanks to the station’s second digital channel, WUOT-2. Listeners can hear WUOT’s second channel on 91.9 FM on an HD Radio in the HD2 position, on Internet radio or streaming on the station’s Web site, http://wuot.org/.

The UT Knoxville School of Journalism and Electronic Media (JEM) will host a McCormick Tribune Specialized Reporting Institute on the Media and Nuclear Power Issues, July 16-18 at the International House, 1623 Melrose Ave. Twenty journalists and 20 journalism students specializing in science reporting from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Tennessee will participate in the institute.

Twenty-two faculty, staff and students from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Aerospace & Defense MBA program are in Japan until July 21 for their international nine-day study of global business. Their experiences will be documented at http://ADMBA.utk.edu. This international experience exposes students to the world of global business, emphasizing aerospace and defense business activities and issues. The group is spending four days in Tokyo and five days in Nagoya, Japan.

Dayakar Penumadu, has been named as permanent head and Fred M. Peebles Professor of theUT Knoxville Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). He has served in the role on an interim basis since 2007. Penumadu holds the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM) Chair of Excellence. He also is the principal investigator for a beam line proposal at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source. He successfully obtained a beam port allocation from SNS’s Neutron Scattering Science Advisory Council in November 2008.

The University of Tennessee announced Tuesday that the athletics department will be providing an additional $1 million of support to academics to the UT Knoxville campus each year beginning in 2009-10. The commitment will provide an additional $15 million to the Knoxville campus over the next 15 years. The money will be distributed in three ways on the UT Knoxville campus, in order to ensure the funding has the broadest effect the UT Knoxville student population.